Hospital offers free head and neck screening April 13

3/28/2012 — Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven and Yale Cancer Center will hold a free public screening for head and neck on Friday, April 13, from 10 a.m.- 3 p.m., in the East Pavilion special events area at YNHH. The seventh annual screening, called "Check up from the neck up," is a simple, five-minute exam that can save lives.

More than 500,000 Americans each year are diagnosed with head and neck cancer, which can attack the nose, sinuses, mouth, ears, throat, larynx, thyroid, saliva glands and lymph nodes in the neck. Fifty percent of those diagnosed die within five years, making early detection essential.

Clarence Sasaki, MD, chief of otolaryngology at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and the Charles W. Ohse Professor of Surgery at Yale School of Medicine, urges people who have a history of these symptoms to be screened:

Family or personal history of smoking

Sore throat that persists for more than six weeks

Hoarseness lasting longer than three weeks

Presence of blood in their saliva or sputum

Persistent ear pain

"Although the number of people who develop head and neck cancers is only 3 percent of all new cancers diagnosed in the US, these diseases can be devastating," Dr. Sasaki said. "This screening is a great way to get a very quick, basic exam by an ENT physician."

To register for the free screening, please call 888.700.6543. Walk-ins are welcome.

Yale-New Haven Hospital is a nationally recognized, 1,541-bed, not-for-profit hospital serving as the primary teaching hospital for the Yale School of Medicine. Yale-New Haven was founded as the fourth voluntary hospital in the U.S. in 1826. Today, the hospital's two New Haven-based inpatient campuses include Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital, Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital and Smilow Cancer Hospital. YNHH has a combined medical staff of about 4,500 university and community physicians practicing in more than 100 specialties. YNHH's York Street campus and associated ambulatory sites are Magnet-designated by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.